hyphenated twentysomething

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Look through these lens...

Independent Lens that is.

Last night on PBS's Independent Lens, I saw this wonderful documentary, Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes . I really enjoyed watching this documentary. Filmmaker and narrator, Byron Hurt, talked about making conscious hip-hop and confronting issues within hip-hop culture such as misogyny, homophobia, and violence.

I really liked how he interviewed various rappers including Chuck D and Mos Def as well as academics, students, and journalists/pop-culture enthusiasts who cover hip-hop in the media. The diverse perspectives were interesting and particularly, the fans who don't find anything wrong with many of the rappers' lyrics. Also, an amusing moment in the movie occurs when Hurt interviews a white man from Columbus, OH who claims that he too can claim hip-hop music as his own (which is fine)....and it's not just for the "colored folk." Yeah. He seriously said that on air. Hurt responds by saying something like, "Did you just say "colored folk?!" Very funny. And awkward!

While the documentary really didn't give any clear solutions or answers to solve these issues, it did promote a much needed discussion and possibly hope for those of us who are hip-hop fans but are disgruntled with the current direction of mainstream hip-hop music and the social attitudes and stereotypes that some rappers promote.

By the way, I would recommend that you watch Independent Lens in general every Tuesday evening at 10/11 EST. Independent Lens promotes thoughtful, eye-opening, and unique independent film-making. Here's a schedule of their upcoming programs: program guide.

Check it out!

Labels: Color-Race-Politics, Music to My Ears, visual appetizers

posted by payal @ 10:14 AM

Our mission with the blog is not simply to express our thoughts as proud hyphenated Americans, but also to help us navigate through the real world, as we will be skimming the surface of adulthood for the next few years. Essentially, it is an open medium for our ideas, criticisms, feelings, thoughts, and opinions relating to our identities, our South Asian culture, our education, our careers, our future, our dreams, and the world around us. We invite you to join us in this journey, we like to call the twentysomething years and take part in our discussions.